An Indian social enterprise start-up is helping people living in urban slums to use clean energy by changing their kerosene lamps for solar lanterns and wood fires for more efficient cooking stoves through a simple payment scheme.Pollinate Energy, which began operations in 2013, is one of thousands of social businesses in India which are tapping into the clean energy market, in a country where 35-40 percent of the population have no access to electricity.While the majority of those without power live in rural areas, many poor urban communities are also forced to live by candlelight, use polluting fuels like kerosene, or "steal energy" by illegally tapping in to the power lines of wealthier neighbouring residences.

In Bangalore - best known as India's IT hub - Pollinate Energy markets and sells renewable energy lanterns and stoves on a five-week, interest-free payment plan to families living under tarpaulin sheets in the city's slums."There are actually a lot of organisations selling clean energy products in the rural sector already, and we found that there was a big gap in the market in the urban sector," said Monique Alfris, co-founder of Pollinate Energy.

"Nobody believes that there are people in urban environments who are using kerosene for light."Alfris was speaking on the sidelines of Sankalp Unconvention Summit in Mumbai last week, where hundreds of social entrepreneurs gathered to promote their ideas to help India's 400 million poor get services such as energy, water, education, housing and healthcare.

"ENERGY POVERTY"

Millions of people who are off the grid in India rely on kerosene lamps, but burning the fuel in poorly ventilated places like a tent or small hut contributes to indoor air pollution, which can cause premature death in women and young children.New alternatives such as solar lanterns and clean cooking stoves are now being manufactured on a larger scale, but urban slum and village communities have not been aware of these new technologies and have not bought the products.Pollinate Energy says there is a serious need to focus on urban areas, given the thousands of rural migrants streaming into India's towns and cities every day, who face "energy poverty" - a lack of access to modern energy services. Courtesy : Thomson Reuters

Indian Slums get solar power

Australian crowdfunding site, ChipIn, is being used to raise money to provide rural Indian slums with solar powered lights. ChipIn has joined forces with Pollinate Energy, an NGO dedicated to providing sustainable and renewable energy sources to rid India of energy poverty.

India has one of the world's longest railway tracks. If we can make this behemoth turn green for energy it would have a large impact on pollution reduction

Indian railways is going green and solar-friendly.

Railway minister of state K H Muniyappa, after flagging off three train services from Mysore, said as part of their green initiative, Indian Railways will be providing bio toilets in as many as 2500 passenger coaches and over 1000 manned level crossing across India will be lit with solar energy lamps in this fiscal year.

If the test check undertaken in a panchayat of a block in Saran district is representative of the fate of solar lights scheme undertaken in different parts of the state, then the scheme is a total flop. This came to light in course of hearing of a case by the State Information Commission (SIC).

Going by the test check report, solar lights seem to have failed to light up the habitats, thanks to corruption at the local level. The lights' batteries were found being used for personal purposes instead of lighting up the village in the test case.

Have a look at. Nomad Solar LampsThe simple lamp design includes a single button for three different lighting settings, offering up to 6 hours of light at full output or 35 hours on the dimmest setting (15-percent output).

The simple lamp design includes a single button for three different lighting settings, offering up to 6 hours of light at full output or 35 hours on the dimmest setting (15-percent output).

The lamp adopts LED technology for durability and withstands rough handling.more

Singing Solar Lantern

Mir of Kashmir has invented a lantern fitted with a sensor that detects human presence and begins to emit a noise or music.

When the army used to barge into homes at night this lantern gave the inhabitants warning of their presence.

It is charged by electricity or solar energy and lasts for at least 10 days. Indeed a handy tool - and one that would not drill holes in your pocket either!

Investing in a solar lamp is an excellent idea.but how does one continue to use it once the power is drained.

Here steps in a co. that offers home charging for your solar powered gadgets.

Darbari Green’s new offer, full Solar Home Power Solution for lighting four lamps, mobile charging and a lantern at a very affordable cost of 40 cents per day, which is equal to Kerosene used per day by rural household.

Fifteen-year-old Shailaja C does not have to inhale toxic fumes from kerosene lamps anymore each time she sits down to study. A student of the Government High School in Kyasamballi, a remote village in Karnataka's Kolar district, Shailaja now uses the bright light of a bottle-sized solar table lamp to study for two hours each evening.

Her mother uses the same light for cooking and also carries it as a flash light to shop in the evenings. The village, about 100 km from the tech hub of Bangalore, doesn't have access to electricity. This change in their lives was made possible by Bangalore based social enterprise Solar Electric Light Company (Selco) cofounded by clean-technology entrepreneur Harish Hande.

EWB- India Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal Chapterdeveloped a SOLAR LANTERN under ProjectLeader, Mr. Harish Darji and Team leaderMr. Prajwal Baral. EWB-India MANIT, Bhopal Chapter is still working on it to improve its efficiency and cost, wherever possible. Specifications of this lantern are as follows:

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

1. SOLAR MODULE- 4.5 volts, 0.9 watts.

2. POWER LED BULBS -0.25 watts One LED.

3. BATTERY-3.6 V (3 cells each of 1.2 V), 700m Ah. (Needs to be replaced every 3 years and will cost approx. INR 150)

Solar lantern is used for illumination purpose in village. It is charged by sunlight and can run for 10 to 12 hours. In rural areas, the high cost of kerosene consumes much of a family's income. One lamp consumes 0.023 litres per hour. With daily usage of around four hours, it amounts to around 3 litres per month. Even with government subsidies, a family spends Rs. 45 per month on average for kerosene.

WHY...”YES” FOR THE SOLAR LANTERN:

Solar lantern runs on solar energy, while kerosene lantern requires conventional kerosene fuel, which is ending and not easily available.

Kerosene lantern costs Rs. 100 and lasts two years, while solar lantern costs Rs. 700 and lasts 15 years.

Kerosene lantern consumes 0.02 litres per hour. With daily usage of around four hours, it amounts to about 3 litres per month. Hence the total running cost comes to around Rs. 45 for fuel plus maintenance cost. In solar lantern, there is no fuel cost. The maintenance cost amounts to Rs. 5 per month, which is 10 times lesser.

Kerosene lantern creates a ton of carbon over 14-15 years. While solar lantern is ecofriendly.

A Solar lantern is a lighting system consisting of. PV module, W-LED(s), battery and electronics, all placed in a suitable housing and made of metal/ plastic or ... as per MNRE

*Petromax lamps that used kerosene is on its way out in parts of Haryana and Punjab. Nearly 300 shopkeepers in Faridabad, Palwal and Agra have started using �Urja unlimited �solar powered lighting device.

The solar lanterns cost between Rs 2500 to Rs 2800/- depending upon the type of lantern that Urja makes, says Puneet Ahuja the founder.

Their Solar lanterns are made available in 3 LED lantern finish fitted with a 3 watt solar panel.

The lanterns come with a battery and a charge controller and are easy to carry. They also make custom made solar lanterns.

The cost of the lantern is equal to what the shop keepers spends on kerosene in a year. But these shopkeepers are so poor that they can�t afford to pay the Rs 2500 upfront.

In such cases Urja offers deferred purchase facility. Puneet Ahuja wants to expand Urjas lantern activity all India and is considering using many NGOs to do it.

The poor already pay a lot for light, mostly from burning kerosene and candles. The bottom 20 percent of the global income pyramid pays from 9 percent to 18 percent of the world’s lighting bill while receiving only 0.1 percent of the benefits. Over a decade, a poor family may spend $1,500 or more on kerosene; meanwhile, a decent home solar system would cost just $300, providing not only light, but mobile-phone charging, fans, computers, televisions -- all while saving more than $1,000.

Obviously, the economics are compelling. Access to cheap electricity can increase incomes among the poor by 50 percent, while improving health and educational outcomes. Increasingly, cheap electricity will come from renewables: Global coal prices tripled from 2005 to 2011, and the price of copper more than doubled.

Two outmoded ideas stand in the way of lighting the world. One is the grid myth -- the idea that electrification requires extending a costly grid to every home on the planet. Grid power requires big, remote power plants, typically fired by coal, and miles upon miles of copper wire.

The United Nations estimates that at least half of households lacking electricity will need to be served by off- grid, bottom-up solutions. The government of India says the comparable figure for Indians is two-thirds. Most of the proposed emerging-market investment in renewable energy is nonetheless devoted to big central solar or wind farms -- where renewables are least competitive.

The second myth is that renewable electrons are expensive and that the poor need subsidies to pay for them. The two major ingredients in home solar -- LED lights and solar panels -- have declined in cost even more rapidly than coal and copper have surged.

A huge fraction of the power pumped into the grid never reaches a customer in India or Africa. As much as 40 percent can be lost in transmission. Wiring a remote village in India adds $0.02 a kilowatt-hour for each kilometer, making local solar electrons significantly cheaper than those fired by distant coal plants and transmitted by copper wire.

Financing Options

For the poor, affordability has three dimensions: total cost, upfront price and payment flexibility. That’s why they favor kerosene; they can buy a single day’s supply in a bottle. Solar power comes in a panel that will give 10, even 20, years of light and power. But many cannot afford a 10-year investment or qualify for financing, which requires fixed payments regardless of season. (Of course, the global middle class does not pay for its electricity upfront, either. When I bought my house, I did not get a bill for the power plants and grid that serve it. I pay for power monthly, based on how many kilowatt- hours I use.)

Remote villages are not the only locations suited to low- carbon alternatives. In African and Indian cities, power companies routinely “load shed” -- shutting down power to entire neighborhoods on hot, sunny afternoons when air conditioners overwhelm the local grid. To protect themselves, businesses and the middle class rely on dirty, expensive diesel generators, storing the power in batteries and wasting as much as 25 percent of the energy in the process.

Rooftop solar panels would generate power reliably -- even when demand peaks. Moreover, solar power would pay for itself with savings that would otherwise be squandered on diesel fueland a leaky grid. Rooftop solar could end the curse of load- shedding throughout Asia and Africa -- and be profitable. The customers are waiting. What’s needed are suppliers and permission from power authorities for consumers to sell their excess electricity back to the local grid. source

Solar lanterns on rent

At a meagre cost, houses in Sadiq Nagar slum glow with environmentfriendly solar lanterns, thanks to the efforts of Pragathi Grameen Bank and SELCO.

The lanterns are provided by Integrated Energy Centre run by Hanumantha Swamy, a resident of the same locality.

Swami has 40 lanterns that he rents out to customers in the evening. He collects and charges them in the morning with the help of the power generated through four large solar panels installed on his terrace. Each lantern has a dry battery and 3 watt led lamp.

Swamy charges Rs 5 for each lamp per day. Each solar lantern has a warranty period of five years during which the service provider SELCO will replace or repair it.

Once charged, the lantern can be used for eight hours uninterruptedly.

People also use these lanterns to charge their mobile phones as each has a plug point for this purpose. The entire project cost Rs 1.

50 lakh out of which Rs 25,000 has been provided by SELCO as margin amount and Rs 25,000 as security deposit on behalf of Hanumantha Swamy to Pragathi Grameen Bank, which has financed the project by providing ` 1 lakh.

�Swamy told Express: “I am earning an income of `3,000 per month in addition to what I earn through other works.I plan to repay the loan at the earliest.” He admitted that there was a demand for these lanterns but he wanted to first provide lights to huts that do not fall under the grid.

One Ratnamma, who uses that lantern daily said: “Till the introduction of solar lanterns we used kerosene lamps that caused health problems.It has helped our children to do well in the annual examinations.’’

Political twist

It is said that political problems are the causes behind the looming darkness in Sadiq Nagar slum, located on the outskirts of the city.

�Repeated requests of the residents have not yielded any results.

�Before the introduction of the solar lanterns, most houses used kerosene lamps.

�What is integrated energy centre?

Integrated Energy Centres are essentially solar powered independent centres, where services like lighting, mobile charging, charged batteries and more are provided on a daily/monthly rental basis. They are located in community spaces in urban or rural areas.

Alternatively, services in realm of education, health, finance can be introduced in these energy providing units for the underprivileged for access to various services that are difficult to obtain. source

About Aathmika

Nagpur

I read a lot and I write a lot. I like it.
aathmika81@gmail.com
write to me about the latest news. in renewable energy.
Write to me about new ideas.
I am writing in the pen name of aathmika.
Once i touch a million viewers for my blogs in all my names, i will surface.